Need advice! (1 Viewer)

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum so if this is in the wrong place by all means move it.
I'm fairly new to the home theatre "hobby" and would like all the info I can get!! Any comments/suggestions would be awesome!
So to start off I have;
Basement
A mid 2011 Mac Mini (hdmi output)
A Pioneer vsx 823
Two Klipsch RF600 tower speakers
A Klipsch sw110 sub
A Samsung 64" 5300 plasma tv
Upstairs
Apple tv (stream music/video from mac to atv)
Tv
Bedroom
Airport express (use airplay from mac to here as well)

Now some info on what I use the system for.
I have an extensive music collection and listen a lot, with the apple tv and airport express i have music throughout my house.
On my basement system I watch a lot of movies (probably used 50% music 50% movies). I use xbmc and netflix (and american netflix) on the mac as well as iTunes.

In the future I want to add rear and centre speakers which brings me to my first question.
With the way my room is set up I don't have a good place to put "bookshelf" rears, I do have a T-bar ceiling so an idea I had was to go with something like polk TC 60i in-ceiling speakers. Will this sound good with my system or is there a better way to go?

Next question is how can I improve the audio quality from the PC? Any good programs out there?
Thanks in advance!!

Here's a pic of my current set up

I would not mix Polk with Klipsch. Audio from "the net" is how it was created. If not 320, no...there is nothing you can do. Other than scrap it all and do it again.

Couldn't you use something from the Kliptsch ceiling line of speakers to match up with your towers instead of the Polks that you were looking at? Is there a reason that you wanted to go with the Polks?

As far as sounding good...that's very subjective. You would have to be the final judge of that after you put them into your specific listening location.

schan1269 said:

I would not mix Polk with Klipsch.Audio from "the net" is how it was created. If not 320, no...there is nothing you can do. Other than scrap it all and do it again.

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Thanks for the input, so it's best to stay with one brand for speakers. Good to know.
Yeah, I have some 320, not near enough though haha

ArmSC said:

Couldn't you use something from the Kliptsch ceiling line of speakers to match up with your towers instead of the Polks that you were looking at? Is there a reason that you wanted to go with the Polks?

As far as sounding good...that's very subjective. You would have to be the final judge of that after you put them into your specific listening location.

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I have no preference really, just saw some tc60s and thought it might work well. So if I go with klipsch in ceiling speakers how do you think the sound will compare to a mid range set of klipsch bookcase speakers? I agree the room shape (and a million other things) come into play for over all sound but as a comparison any ideas?

Thanks for the input, so it's best to stay with one brand for speakers. Good to know.

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It's definitely a good idea to stay with the same model group. But if you do mix and match, it's even worse to mix different "style" speakers; so mixing Klipsch's distinctive horn tweeter with smoother Polks would stand out.

I've heard Schan say that you should never mix horns with anything else. So I would stay with that line of thought. I wish I could comment more on the sound but truth is I've heard very few ceiling setups. Most that I have were either commercial or classroom setups with emphasis on vocal reproduction and very little of anything else. They definitely were not klipsch horn ceiling mounted HT setups.

One other thought - if by "T-bar" ceiling, you mean a drop-tile ceiling, then it should be a very trivial matter to drop speaker wire down into the walls and go with in-wall speakers rather than in-ceiling.

In-walls are less of a compromise, sonically speaking, than in-ceiling. Of course, it all depends on what's available in your area and what you can find that fits your budget.

Jason Charlton said:

One other thought - if by "T-bar" ceiling, you mean a drop-tile ceiling, then it should be a very trivial matter to drop speaker wire down into the walls and go with in-wall speakers rather than in-ceiling.

In-walls are less of a compromise, sonically speaking, than in-ceiling. Of course, it all depends on what's available in your area and what you can find that fits your budget.

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Hmm that's a good idea, it would be quite easy. Thanks!